Sliders - Closed Circuit
by Faraway-R
Summary: AU. We all know that Sliders rarely were able to choose their destination. What if the universe itself made the choice? What if the universe was structured so you could only travel to certain destinations from any given world? Summary of the sliders' journey through the very same worlds they came through before. One-shot, AU after episode "Into The Mystic".


**Sliders - Closed Circuit**

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A/N: This is the AU story of Sliders, where the timer uses not the coordinate method of travel, but the incremental move method along the "axis". There is a limited number of Earth-Dimensions on the same "layer", and if you go far enough, you will end up in the point of origin. And again - this is ALTERNATE UNIVERSE.

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The journey has been completed. The home was reached.

After a number of jumps, the Sorcerer transferred us home. It did not last. A mistake, an error of judgement, caused us to slide away from home.

The first inkling we were wrong... The Ice World. We were, once again, in the frozen San Francisco. How or why, we cared little, but we wanted to leave. And we left.

We did not know what to expect - but the next world was all too familiar to us. It was less than half an hour before the timer reset - and it was all it took to confirm - we were there before.

The next world... The world where Michael Mallory was alive. That was a confimation - we were travelling in circles. And, with four days worth of time delay, we spent it at the Mallory Residence. We were welcomed, and were given time enough to prepare for the travel ahead.

Spiderwasps... It was sheer luck we were able to leave it as fast as we were. Apparently, the swarm has passed shortly before our arrival. It was enough for us to not get caught up, but it also spoke volumes on the dangers of the bugs. We were glad it was not our world. The rumor however, caught on a stray radio that somehow survived, is that the location of the queens (yes, multiple) was discovered, and nuked. The somber celebratory broadcast declared that "In three years there will no longer be any spiderwasps. But it will be a world half empty as well".

The next world? Tsunami world. That preparation? Yep. We taught Rembrandt to swim, among other things. Not that our stay was long.

Our stint in Great Britain was two days long. Apparently, we're considered heroes to the locals. There was talk of giving us medals, or something, if we ever returned. Not that it was aired. Sometimes, it pays to be good.

Next was the world of millionaires. Easy come, easy go they say. Six hours there was enough to get our hands on quite a few supplies, books, and so on. And we used them wisely in the next world in line. All I will say - the internet is not only for ****. Information distribution.

Next point of destination... Cannibals. Lucky us, there were none nearby. Apparently, the Q infection got them. Or so we think.

Bennish was apparently wiser than we thought. He decided that Albert Einstein was right. He wrote that, in his manifesto. Apparently, there are no physicists who refused to sign it, and it states that no nuclear device is to be created, until peace is reached. Whatever that may mean. We also met Mr. Time Traveler, the local Quinn. He meddles. Oh so much. Apparently, he's managed to prove that travelling far enough into the past renders changes mute, and the result will be similar in the end... Unless the change is too drastic. Travelling to the future, on the other hand, proved instrumental to his meddling. He's now rich.

Feminist world was easy to pass. Apparently, leaving for the wilds and camping was a good idea. We were considering it earlier, and it proved right. Unfortunately, the next window of time was less than twenty minutes, so we could not enjoy the vacation. Pity, I would have enjoyed it now that I was not forced to serve everyone on a bet. Packing and unpacking proved tedious, but drawing our attention at the last stretches of the way even more so. The Crying Man's World would have been fine. But the Death Lottery? Nobody wanted to get caught up in that. Nobody.

Last one was the world of the Sorcerer. Again. When he saw us, he laughed. And he confirmed - yes, it was true, he knew that our next step would have brought us home, had we time to calibrate the timer. That's when it hit Quinn - they've never seen the Elvis World! The Sorcerer was able to explain further.

The worlds, as he said, are like the beads on the string, wrapped around an axis. It's not _quite_ like a spiral, and certain worlds make it possible to either jump "lower" or "higher", in addition to "backwards" and "forwards". He also explained that jumping "forwards" requires the least amount of energy, jumping "backwards" requires more, and changing the "height" requires additional energy, or sometimes its extreme loss due to instability.

He continued to explain, that activating the timer early left us with too little energy to go "backwards". That due to malfunctioning and specifics of the world arrangement, we would have hit a barrier going "forwards" from this world, and ended up "lower". And that the world we called "Elvis World", was in fact the last of the "higher" string.

After helping us calibrate the timer one last time, and giving us what Quinn called "cheat sheets" - the necessary equations and derivations for more active dimensional travel - we were sent on our way home.

It was confirmed, after the few discrepancies were explained away by Quinn's mother. The house color. The door not making noise. The confirmed disappearances. In a few hours, we were sure - it truly was our home. Why, it even had the genuine Golden Gate Bridge!

Of course, not all was forgotten. A polite man came to the porch in the middle of discussion and introduced himself as an FBI agent. He kept his visit short, giving us the visit card and asking us to call and arrange a meeting at our convenience, "preferrably in the next two weeks". So, here I am, gathering my thoughts on the journey, writing them down. It will come in handy.

Maximillian P. Arturo

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A/N: So this is my first fanfiction. I do not intend to continue, but if you are willing to write in this AU, ask my permission (and give me credit!). Do not complain that someone is OOC - I don't care. It's just an exercise in writing a premise. In fact, I will put it in "Odd Ideas" Story, similar to Rorsharch's Blot.


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